Book: The Ten Faces of Innovation

Author:

Tom Kelly

Premise:

This book discusses the importance of innovation and how it separates good organizations from excellent organizations.  The Ten Faces of Innovations also details the different personas that can foster & create innovation within an organization.

My Thoughts:

Go out and buy this book today, you will not regret it.  Some books inspire you, others can make you feel something, still others allow you to look at things from a completely different perspective.  This book did all of these things for me and much more.  It validated my views on the importance of constantly trying to improve on what ever it is that you are doing.  Companies that can evolve and adapt quickly to consumer needs will succeed, all others will be left behind.  I am constantly looking for ways to push my company ahead of our competition and this book provided me with many insights on how I can achieve that.

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” — Charles Darwin

For me the book articulated what I have been trying to formalize in my mind for some time now. It provides a language that you can use within your organization.  One key aspect the book highlighted for me is that innovation is what your are, not something that you do.  It is more pervasive than just saying that you have an R&D department that creates cool stuff, it is about how your entire organization operates from executive management to the folks on the ground doing the daily grind.

As the title suggests, the book discusses 10 different personas that push innovation through an organization.  Instead of me trying to paraphrase for Tom Kelly, I’m going to pull a few sections from the book directly that crystalize my thoughts almost exactly.

“So who are these personas?  Many already exist inside of large companies, though they’re often underdeveloped or unrecognized.  They represent latent organizational ability, a reservoir of energy waiting to be tapped.  We all know plenty of birght, capable people who would like to make a bigger contribution, team members whose contributions don’t quite fit into traditional catagories like engineer, or marketer or project manager.

In a postdiciplinary world where the old descriptors can be constraining, these new roles can empower a new generation of innovators.  They give individuals permission to make their own unique contribution to the social ecology and performance of the team.”

Book Details:

The ten personas fall into three categories.  I’m going to be pulling text directly from the book.  Again, I think Tom Kelly is a better writer than I am.  I don’t want to paraphrase and loose some of the meaning in the translation.  Because of this, this section is a bit lengthy.

Learning Personas: These personas are driven by the idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can afford to be complacent.  The world is changing at an accelerated pace, and today’s great idea my be tomorrow’s anacronism.  The learning roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused and remind the organization not to be so smug about what you “know.”

• The Anthropologist brings new learning and insights into the organization by observing human behavior and developing a deep understanding of how people interact physically and emotionally with products, services, and spaces.
• The Experimenter prototypes new ideas continuously, learning by a process of enlightened trial and error.  The Experimenter takes calculated risks to achieve success through a state of “experimentation as implementation.”
• The Cross-Pollinator explores other industries and cultures, then translates those findings and revelations to fit the unique needs of your enterprise.

Organizing Personas: These personas are played by individuals that are savvy about the often counterintuitive process of how organizations move ideas forward.  Most people believe that ideas should speak for themselves.  However even the best ideas must continuously compete for time, attention, and resources.  Those who adopt these organizing roles don’t dismiss the process of budget and resource allocation as “politics” or “red tape.”  They recognize it is a complex game of chess, and they play to win.

• The Hurdler knows the path to innovation is strewn with obstacles and develops a knack for overcoming or outsmarting those roadblocks.
• The Collaborator helps bring eclectic groups together, and often leads from the middle of the pack to create a new combinations and multidisciplinary solutions.
• The Director not only gathers together a talented cast and crew but also helps to spark their creative talents.

Building Personas: These personas apply insights from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the organizing roles to make innovation happen.  When people adopt the building personas, they stamp their mark on your organization.  People in these roles are highly visible, so you’ll often find them right at the heart of the action.

• The Experience Architect designs compelling experiences that go beyond mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customers’ latent or expressed needs.
• The Set Designer creates a stage on which innovation team members can do their best work, transforming physical environments into powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude.
• The Caregiver builds on the metaphor of a health care professional to deliver customer care in a manner that goes beyond mere service.
• The Storyteller builds both internal morale and external awareness through compelling narratives that communicate a fundamental human value or reinforce a specific cultural trait.

So in conclusion, go out and buy this book.

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